Past Seasons – Tesserae Baroque

Past programs

Songs of Salomone Rossi – Harmony for Humanity

Salomone Rossi (C 1570 – 1630) was a Jewish composer, violinist, and concertmaster at the Gonzaga Court in Mantova. While his instrumental works are splendid examples of the sensuous and fiery musical language of the early Baroque, it is his experimentation with setting Hebrew liturgical text that is perhaps one of the most astonishing facets of his career. During the period, there was great debate over the potential role of art music in the synagogue, and not surprisingly, Rossi was greatly in favor of considering the contemporary style of Monteverdi and the Ducal Chapel as a source of musical inspiration for Jewish worship.

Tesserae wishes to celebrate the life and works of Salomone Rossi, with a performance of his sacred and secular music, alongside music by his colleagues from the Mantuan court — Viadana, Gastoldi, de Wert and, of course, Monteverdi. In this program, we wish to demonstrate the unique way in which Rossi incorporated a musical language that he loved — that of the Gonzaga court — as a way to bridge the gap between two diverse cultures.

Old Music in the New World

During the late Renaissance, the Spanish empire dominated much of the globe; its reach included Naples, the Americas, and stretched as far afield as the Philippines. Throughout its dominion, a flow of music and musicians made their way from Spain to various centers in the New World, where a new generation of musicians steeped in Spanish and local traditions created some of the most vibrant repertoire of the times. Tesserae presents vocal music by Hernando Franco, Juan García de Zéspedes and Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, along with instrumental music by Diego Ortiz and Andrea Falconieri

Esset, Meine Lieben, und trinket!

Johann Christoph Bach’s wedding cantata Meine Freundin du bist Schön remains one of the true gems of the early German baroque period. Setting text from the Songs of Solomon, Bach not only provides lush vocal writing, but one of the most dazzling violin ciacconas of all time. Tesserae presents this epic and beautiful cantata together with music by Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Schein.

A musical portrait of the Venetian Courtesan

Tesserae is delighted to perform a program inspired by Giorgione’s ‘Portrait of a Courtesan’, currently on exhibit at the Norton Simon Museum of Art. From high art madrigals to bawdy carnival songs, Tesserae explores the sound world of Renaissance and Baroque Venice from a unique female perspective

Giovanni Gabrieli – A 400th Year Anniversary Celebration

Tesserae celebrates Giovanni Gabrieli with a spectacular performance of three-choir vocal and instrumental music. Tesserae will be joined by early brass specialists Bruce Dickey, Kiri Tollaksen, Stephen Escher, Greg Ingles, and others! We will feature some of the Venetian master’s most famous vocal motets and instrumental canzoni, taking advantage of the acoustical possibilities in All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills.

Mix & Masque

Unlike opera, English masques were not unified artworks: they were collaborative and featured a mix of spectacle. Luckily, while plot lines may have been thin, the music was spectacular. Tesserae has created its own modern-day masque, piecing together our favorite tunes and selections from original masques, and combining them with dramatic readings to create a ‘meta-masque.’ Featuring music by Purcell, Locke, Blow, Lawes, and more!

Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers

Situated at the point where the diverse historical musical currents of the late Renaissance and the nascent Baroque periods converge, Claudio Monteverdi’s monumental setting of the Marion Vespers service remains one of the cornerstones of early Baroque sacred music. A virtual compendium of the rich variety of musical styles of the time, Monteverdi creates a musical masterpiece, a diverse work that is nonetheless unified by virtue of its sheer splendor, superb craftsmanship, and emotional depth.

This special and not-to-be-missed performance will be led by renowned lutenist, conductor and Early Music specialist Stephen Stubbs (Tragicomedia, Pacific Musicworks, Boston Early Music Festival)

Anecdotes & Innuendos

Scholars of the Baroque sometimes encounter historic data suggesting that certain musicians and artists might have been members of what we now know as the LGBTQ community.

Not surprisingly, members of that community were not able to live their lives openly during the period. Therefore, there is not enough concrete evidence to be able to piece together a completely clear picture. However, there is enough to suggest a strong and significant queer presence in the music-making of that time, suggested by the biographies of prominent composers as well as by the social networks surrounding important patrons. Much of this evidence exists as historical gossip.

Tesserae will present a concert in honor of these immensely influential figures whose personal lives were shrouded by history, only glimpses of which are seen through Anecdotes & Innuendos. Featuring music by Handel, Corelli, Lully, and A. Scarlatti.

La Cecchina

Nicknamed “La Cecchina,”or “The Songbird,” Francesca Caccini was one of the most noteworthy composer-performers during the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque, the period in which monody and opera emerged. The daughter of Giulio Caccini, Francesca followed in her father’s footsteps as an employee of the powerful Medici family, and grew up in the rich musical circles of which he was a part. Tesserae joins forces with the vocal students and faculty of Mount Saint Mary’s University to present a program featuring music by Francesca Caccini, as well as the music that formed the sonic landscape in which she flourished. With works by Francesca Caccini, Emelio de’ Cavalieri, Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Cristofano Malvezzi, and Luca Marenzio.

La Gerusalemme Liberata

Published in 1581, Torquato Tasso’s epic poem La Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) became one of the most widely read literary works of its time, inspiring countless paintings, madrigals and operas. Set during the Crusades, Tasso created a vivid world including elements of fantasy as well as a cast of extremely memorable characters. Its suitability for musical treatment is obvious, and easily demonstrated by the vast number of musicians who used its text for various songs and madrigals, and for opera plots. Among the many composers who were inspired to set passages of Gerusalemme to music, Monteverdi used the episode with the two lovers Tancredi and Clorinda to create what is essentially a short opera scene, a splendid and concise example of the new genere rappresentativo. Featuring three characters — a narrator and the two battling lovers — Monteverdi’s treatment allegedly brought its first audience, the Gonzaga family of Mantua, to tears. Also in the city of Mantua, the great Flemish madrigalist Wert set an entire cycle of Tasso’s stanzas as polyphonic five-part madrigals. Like Monteverdi’s scena, many of these are also highly rhetorical in style, and lend themselves to a variety of performance possibilities, such as the inclusion of instruments and performance as “proto-monody”, many of which Tesserae will explore in this concert. Other settings to be performed will include madrigals by Marenzio and sinfonie from Erminia sul giordano, an opera by the avant-garde Roman composer Michelangelo Rossi.